UPDATE 2-No need for panic over food prices - U.N. FAO chief

* US crop report on corn sent a "very good message"

* FAO head sees no need for rapid response forum

* Maize, soybean exporters just entering planting season

By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL, Sept 13 The head of the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday there was no
need for panic over global food prices, with the U.S. corn crop
not as weak as feared and maize and soybean exporters just
beginning planting.

FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva told a
conference in Istanbul he did not see a need to convene an
emergency G20 forum on food prices for now.

"But this is a decision that needs to be considered from
week to week. At the moment the prices are very volatile and we
are following them very closely," he said.

Da Silva noted major maize and soybean exporting nations in
the southern hemisphere were just beginning their planting
season, meaning production was set to increase.

"This game is long run. We've just started the second part
of the game," he said.

Fears of a repeat of the unrest and hunger seen in the
2007/08 food crisis emerged as the worst U.S. drought in more
than half a century, and persistent dryness in other key
grain-producing countries, sent corn and soybean prices to
successive record highs.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday cut its
forecast for the country's corn crop by less than one percent,
indicating the drought may have done less damage than
anticipated.

The forecast raised hopes a full-blown food emergency could
be averted.

"Yesterday we had a very good message from the U.S.,
revising their numbers. Now the corn (price) is down," da Silva
said.

U.S. corn prices were trading at around $7.71 a bushel
on Thursday, down close to 10 percent from a record high of
$8.49 a bushel set on August 10.

The 2007/2008 crisis added 75 million to the number of
chronically hungry people in the world, according to FAO
estimates. Other bodies put the increase at up to 160 million.

Several members of the Group of 20 nations (G20) had said
they were considering calling a meeting of its Rapid Response
Forum, set up last year to respond to abnormal market
conditions.

France, which presides over the G20 agriculture body AMIS,
had previously said any decision on convening the forum would be
made after the Sept. 12 USDA report on grains.

Da Silva said he would meet France's agriculture minister on
Monday to discuss the role of speculators in surging food
prices, which has been a major French concern. He noted there
was much better policy co-ordination globally to ward off a
crisis than in the past.

"What happened in 2008 (was that) we didn't have any
mechanism to co-ordinate policy. Now we do ... we have
ministers, we have AMIS, we have protocols," he said.

"Most of the talks are informal but we are providing updated
information and transparency to the markets, to avoid panic and
any unilateral action."

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